Branded Holiday Shopping Days 2013

It started with Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. It spread to Super Saturday - the Saturday before Christmas and Cyber Monday - the Monday after Thanksgiving. In the past few years, two more have been added. American Express created Small Business Saturday to encourage consumers to patronize their smaller non-chain stores. Last year retailers added Gray Thursday to get shoppers into the stores right after their Thanksgiving dinners. To retailers, the branding of holiday shopping days is one of the tools they've found to be effective in combatting reduced sales in a sluggish economy.

What does the branding of these days do for retailers?

By branding these five shopping days, retail marketers give them an identity that serves as a short cut into the brains of prospective buyers. Their objective is to get shoppers' money before their competitors do. As shoppers hear about these branded days in the media, they think of them as special events and opportunities to receive discounts and deals they are unlikely to get on other days. Branding these days also provides opportunities for retailers to offer discounts, open earlier, close later, and create lines. Yes, that's right - lines.

How do lines effectively promote?

If you ask most people about lines, they will say they do not like standing in them. However, lines attract people. They immediately communicate that what is at the end of the line is desirable and worth the wait. Great restaurants and movies have lines. Those that are not so good don't. Many shoppers are attracted by the "wisdom of the crowd" that lines represent. By not allowing pre-orders, Apple deliberately orchestrated lines for the iPad2 because they did not want a re-occurrence of no lines at Verizon stores when the Verizon iPhone was introduced. The lack of lines became a news story that gave Apple and the Verizon iPhone negative publicity. Lines also attract people that love to spread the word about how they camped out overnight to be early in line to shop at a store for a particular product. It is part of their identity to tell others about this. As they do, they become initiators of positive word-of-mouth pyramids that promote the store and products to a much larger audience for free.

The strategies that create the lines

In essence, most large retailers typically employ two basic strategies to lure buyers into their stores and Web sites during these branded days - (1) sales promotion and (2) a loss leader pricing strategy.

Sales promotion

Sales promotion is designed to give buyers an incentive to buy a particular product quicker than they ordinarily would. The sales promotion strategies that sellers employ typically include the following:

Discounts. Items are put on sale

Rebates. Buyers pay the price marked on the product, and receive a discount (usually from the manufacturer) once rebate requirements are met and forms are completed. In rare cases, in-store rebates are given at the cash register when the buyer pays for the product.

Coupons. These can be offered by the manufacturer or retailer and usually involve the buyer submitting a physical coupon to the seller in the store (either mailed or cut out of a magazine or newspaper). In the case of an online purchase, the buyer enters a coupon code at check-out time from a Web site.

Loss leader

A loss leader strategy uses a desirable product, or group of products, priced at or near cost to lure buyers to stores and Web sites. Once at the store, the buyers are expected to buy a shopping basket full of profitable items that will more than compensate for the any losses taken on the loss leaders.

What about upscale and high-quality products?

Apple, and other businesses that sell high-end products, are able to create lines of excited buyers without using strategies that involve lower prices. They employ branding, product design, and more sophisticated promotion strategies to generate the lines. Lower prices and special deals would merely diminish the value of the products. The target audience is willing to pay more for quality and status.

Large numbers estimated for shopping over the holiday

The National Retail Federation estimates that 140 million will shop over the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend this year - online and off. While this number is exciting, it is down slightly from last year, which predicted 147 million shoppers. One reason given for the decline in 2013 is that Thanksgiving comes very late - reducing the number of shopping days.

Smaller Black Friday crowds expected in stores too

According to Neilsen, fewer shoppers are planning to visit retail stores on Black Friday this year - 13% versus 17% last year. Why? There are several reasons.

More are shopping online (46% up from 30% last year).

More stores are expected to be open on Thanksgiving this year - taking business away from Black Friday sales.

Thanksgiving comes later in 2013 - providing fewer shopping days.

The other branded holiday shopping days have also cannibalized Black Friday sales.

Even though Black Friday numbers are expected to decline, Neilsen estimates that total holiday shopping will be 2% greater than in 2012 as a result of "improved consumer confidence."

Will there be more branded holiday shopping days?

Whether numbers are higher or lower, you can expect branded shopping days, (Gray Thursday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Super Saturday) to continue as long as buyers line up and cash registers remain busy. Stay tuned for more branded days that can drive shoppers to stores online and off. After all, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday are still available.

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